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SONG: Before the Gold Rush

Well, Bill went out and he bought a guitar
Didn’t think he’d get very far with it
He’d strum strings till he got bored
Even taught himself three or four chords

Met up with a guy named Dwight
Looked messed up but he played all right
Hundred pock marks on his face
A Peavey amp and a Rickenbacker bass
His cousin was a drummer
His best friend sang
Called themselves, “The Metal Gang.”

They jammed in Brian’s basement
Until his mom and dad freaked out
They couldn’t find a replacement
So they got up some bread
and picked a studio out

All the amps turned up full power
Seven bucks per half an hour
Engineer was a burn-out thug on half a million drugs
Getting shocks from the external jack
Microphones always feeding back
But what the hell, they sounded good
Billy always knew they would

Then Evan found himself a girlfriend
And Brian started work part-time
They cut their practice down to Fridays
Didn’t learn no new stuff
But the old stuff sounded fine

They were gonna be famous, big time
Rock and roll stars
They were gonna have groupies,
World tours, long purple cars
They were gonna make albums,
Movies, and videotapes
They were all so hungry,
Ready for their big break.
They played a couple of high-school dances
But didn’t manage their finances
Brian mentioned this to Dwight
Two of them had a long, loud fight

Bill began to have his doubts
Started cursing Ev’s girl out
Evan basically threw a fit
No one was surprised when he quit

So Billy took on all the vocals
He taught himself to cry and shriek
They played in clubs for all the locals
Cut back rehearsals to every other week

Then followed eight months of stagnation
Even when they tried, nothing gelled
Low on money, short on inspiration
Dwight would get too drunk to play
Bri would bitch and Bill would yell

One day Bri’s family moved to Wisconsin
Packed up his cymbals and was gone
But that week Bill met Wally Johnson
A boy born with drumsticks instead of arms

Then there was Tom who played the keyboards
And even wrote some of his own tunes
Bill and Wally started making phone calls
They were booked solid each weekend that June

Bill started talking `bout a promo
Tom said he knew a soundman cheap
But Dwight turned white and told them, “Oh no,
Things are going good right now,
Let’s not get in too deep.”

They were gonna be the Beatles, Pistols, Rolling Stones
They were gonna be Zeppelin, Halen, Who and Ramones
They were gonna have posters, fan clubs, security guards
They would get gold records, platinum and grammy awards

Well, just when everything got rolling
Dwight’s bass guitar got stolen
“We’ll do our best,” the cop expounded.
Guess what? They never found it.
He asked his father
He asked his mother
They wouldn’t let him buy another
The band’s consolations were unanimous
Just not terribly magnanimous

They phased him out, they had no choice
And they let Evan get back in
They found some bassist in the Village Voice
He was free just once a month
But they fit him right in

Poor ol’ Dwight was never missed
Till the new guy broke his wrist
They asked him back
He told `em, “no.”
He also told `em where to go.

Wally said, “Man, this is jive,”
He left and joined the Punker Five
So no one really took it hard
When Tom when toff to Juilliard

“One day,” Bill says, “We’re gonna do it,
And then the world will know our name.
All you gotta do is stick on to it
And before you even know it
You’ve got fortune and fame.

Yeah, we’re gonna be famous, big-time, rock and roll stars
We’re gonna have groupies, world tours,
And reach for the stars.

Yeah, we’re gonna be famous, big-time, rock and roll stars
We’re gonna have groupies, world tours,
And reach for the stars…”

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NOTES & BACKSTORY:

At the time I wrote this song about the rise and fall of a band, I was in a band that rose and just kind of petered out. The song title is, of course, a play on Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush,” but there’s no other influence of one song on the other.